national gallery: edward vi as a child by hans holbein the younger

Hans Holbein the Younger
German, 1497/1498 - 1543
Edward VI as a Child, probably 1538
oil on panel, 56.8 x 44 cm (22 3/8 x 17 3/8 in.)
Andrew W. Mellon Collection

"Little one, emulate thy father and be the heir of his virtue; the world contains nothing greater. Heaven and earth could scarcely produce a son whose glory would surpass that of such a father. Do thou but equal the deeds of thy parent and men can ask no more. Shouldst thou surpass him, thou hast outscript all kings the world has revered in ages past."

narratives | provenance | conservation notes | location | more

The photo is mine from yesterday, but all this information comes from the excellent website of the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. It would be great to have all of this metadata and linkage automagically associated with my photo, making it a ubiphoto. It wouldn't be very hard, technically; we had an early prototype of the key pieces working cleanly in 1999, using infrared beacons as physical hyperlinks and IR-capable PDAs with wireless lan as the capture device. Now you could do it with QR codes or rfids and a suitably featured cameraphone. Actually, a little tablet with headphones might be a nice museum browser. It would be fun to revisit the museum scenario and do some design studies, knowing what we know now.